Garment hanger coupling



June 23, 1910 BERKW'TS GARMENT HANGER COUPLING 2 Shets-Sheet 1 FiledOct; 30, 1968 June 23, 1970 A. BERKOVITS GARMENT HANGER COUPLING 2Sheets-Sheet 2 :Filed Oct. 50, 1968 lA/VEA/TO? United States Patent3,516,126 GARMENT HANGER COUPLING Abe Berkovits, 4864 N. Shoreland,Whitefish Bay, Wis. 53217 Filed Oct. 30, 1968, Ser. No. 771,867 Int. Cl.A41j 51/08 US. CI. 24-84 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A claspthat couples an auxiliary clothes hanger to a primary clothes hanger.The clasp and the auxiliary hanger may be clipped and unclipped onto agarment hanger to form a composite garment hanger. Therefore onecomposite garment hanger is able to keep a set of clothes together suchas a womans blouse and matching skirt or a mans suit coat and matchingtrousers. The auxiliary hanger may be rotatably mounted on the clasp.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a device wherebymatching clothing garments may be kept together on the same compositegarment hanger. More specifically, this invention relates to a claspthat couples an auxiliary garment hanger to a primary garment hanger.The clasp retaining the auxiliary hanger can be clipped and unclippedfrom the primary garment hanger.

The modern garment industry has always manufactured clothes in sets tomeet the styling requirements of the time. Although styles change overthe years, the basic demand for clothing in sets has not changed.Examples of such sets of clothing are mens suits wherein the coat andpants are made from the same fabric, womens suits wherein the skirt andjacket are made from the same fabric, womens slack suits, womensmatching shorts and blouse, womens play suits, womens lounging suits,etc. As a consequence thereof, there has been a need for a singlegarment hanger capable of simultaneously hanging a set of clothes. Therehave been many attempts to make such a garment hanger, some meeting withsuccess and others with failure. In recent years a plastic garmenthanger, as shown in FIG. 1, was introduced to the market. This plastichanger 10 has a rotatable hanging hook 11, arms 12, and auxiliaryclothes loops 13. The arms 12 hold one garment such as a jacket, blouse,coat, etc. The auxiliary clothes loops 13 are utilized to holdadditional or matching clothing such as a skirt, shorts, pants, etc.However, in order to use the auxiliary loops 13, these specific loopsmust be sewn into the colthing. Rarely are the sewn auxiliary loopsplaced correctly so that the garment will hang smoothly from the hanger.This discrepancy may be caused by a variety of dimensions amongmanufactured plastic hangers of this type. Furthermore, sewing thesehanging loops into such clothing increases the manufacturers costthereof. When an inexpeensive piece of clothing is made, the extra costof sewing hanging loops therein is not justified and therefore the loopsare not added to the garment. As a consequence of not adding the hangingloops to the clothing, a hanger is required for each piece of clothingin the set. In many instances the difierent types of clothing making upa set required different shaped hangers. The standard wire type garmenthanger (not shown) is well suited for holding shirts and the like but isunsatisfactory when such a Wire hanger is used to hold womens shorts,for example. The garment shown in FIG. 2 is more suited to hold suchitems of clothing as womens shorts wherein the alligator clips areoperationally secured to the wire hanger 14 frame. This type of garmenthanger also has a hook 11 used for holding the ice hanger on any numberof types of clothes racks. Attempts have been made to fasten the hangerof FIG. 2 onto the hanger of FIG. 1 but such attempts have proven eithereconomically expensive or otherwise impractical.

The retail clothing establishment is user and consumer, having a largedemand for composite garment hangers because in the displaying for saleof garment sets, usually only one of the garments is fully taggedconcerning price, size, etc. Without using a composite hanger, theseretailers would have a never-ending conglomeration of mixed sizes,styles, etc. wherein their inventory would be forever comingled.

In one attempt to make a composite garment hanger, an auxiliary hanger14, as shown in FIG. 2A (which is identical to the hanger 14 of FIG. 2except for the hook 11) was permanently attached to a primary hangersuch as the hanger shown in FIG. 1. In this construction, the primaryhanger 10 was made from plastic and was relatively cheap whereas theauxiliary hanger was made from metal, being about ten times as expensiveas the plastic hanger and much more durable. It has been found that theplastic hanger breaks easily resulting in the whole combination beingunusable and thereafter thrown away. Therefore, this invention solvesthe need for a combination garment hanger wherein the expensiveauxiliary hanger can be easily clipped to a plastic hanger, unclippedwhen the plastic hanger is broken and reclipped to another inexpensiveunbroken plastic hanger.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A general object of the present invention is toprovide a coupling means to secure an auxiliary hanger to a primarygarment hanger.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a claspthat has an auxiliary garment hanger mounted thereon with the claspshaped so that it can be clipped and unclipped from a primary garmenthanger.

Another object of the present invention is to provide such a claspwherein the upper and lower clips of the clasp are resilient.

Still another object of the present invention is to pro vide a claspwherein the auxiliary hanger mounted thereon is rotatable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Additional objects and advantages ofthe present invention will become apparent as revealed in the followingdescription when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a primary garment hanger.

FIG. 2 is an elevation view of an auxiliary garment hanger.

FIG. 2A is an elevation view of an auxiliary hanger.

FIG. 3 is a perspective View of the clasp with an auxiliary hanger.

FIG. 4 is a perspective section view of a modification of the clasp ofFIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an elevation view of the clasp coupling the auxiliary hangerto the primary garment hanger.

FIG. 6 is a section view of the primary hanger, the clasp and part ofthe auxiliary hanger.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, theprimary garment hanger 10 is representative of only one type of manygarment hangers. The hanger 10 has a midsection 16 that has a widthdimen sion represented by B. One illustrative embodiment of the clasp 20of this invention is shown in FIG. 3. The clasp 20 may be made from awide variety of materials such as sheet metal. The clasp 20 has at leastone deformed retainer 21 that is formed around an auxiliary hanger 14 inorder to secure the hanger section 22 to the clasp 20. The retainers 21are formed around hanger section 22 permitting the hanger section tofreely rotate therein. I1- lustratively, in another embodiment of theinvention, as shown in FIG. 4, the retainers 21 have holes 30 thereinused to receive the auxiliary hanger section 22.

The clasp 20 has at the upper end thereof, in a preferred embodiment, anupper clip 23 having two pronged tips 24 and cutout section 25 forming aforked shaped arrangement as part of clasp 20. The tips 24 are designedto fit over the top 17 of the midsection 16 of hanger The clips 23 areconnected substantially perpendicular to the clasp 20 when the clasp 20is designed to fit over a hanger midsection 16 as shown in FIG. 6.

The lower clip arm 26 is substantially perpendicularly attached to theclasp 20. The clip arm 26 has an end tip 27 that is substantially bentupward and then downward. The distance D as shown in FIG. 3 is theinternal dimension between the upper clip 23 and the lower clip 26. Thelower clip 26 is resilient, similar to a leaf spring, so that the upperprong clip 23 fits over the top 17 of the midsection 17 of a hanger, thelower clip 27 can be urged over the bottom 18 of the midsection 17 sothat the clasp 20 is firmly secured to the hanger 10. The resiliency ofthe lower arm 26 permits the clasp 20 to be clipped, unclipped andclipped again to the hanger 10. The dimension D is slightly larger thanthe dimension B so that the clasp 20 will fit over the hanger midsection16.

With an auxiliary hanger 14 rotatably secured to the clasp 20 and inturn, the clasp 20 clipped to the hanger 10, the clasp 20 couples theauxiliary hanger 14 to the primary hanger 10, making the compositelonger as shown in FIG. 5. The clips on the auxiliary hanger 14 may holdan article of clothing such as pants while the arms 12 of the hanger 10hold a coat.

Illustratively in another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG.4, the upper clip 23' has a hole 29 so that the hook 11 of the hanger 10passes through the hole 29 securing the upper clip 23' to the hanger 10.The upper clip 23 cooperates with the resilient lower clip 26 to securethe clasp the hanger 10 similar to the manner in which the upper clip 23cooperates with the lower clip 26 to secure that embodiment of theinvention to the hanger 10. 7

When the cheap plastic hanger 10 breaks, the clasp 20 and the auxiliaryhanger 14 may be unclipped therefrom and reclipped to another plastichanger 10. Thus, this invention provides an economical method for makingnew composite hangers by having to replace only the cheap component whenit breaks rather than replacing the old composite which is the onlyknown arrangement currently available.

The invention contemplates that there are many different shapes ofclasps necessary to secure diiferent designs of auxiliary hangers to themany different midsection configurations of primary hangers.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that the presentinvention provides a clasp that is capable of coupling an auxiliaryhanger to a primary hanger. The

' clasp provides the added advantage of being able to clip and unclipthe auxiliary hanger to the primary hanger.

Thus, while I have illustrated herein several preferred embodiments ofmy invention, and that different shapes of primary hangers willnecessitate modifications of the clasp, it is understood that changesand variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A clasp for coupling an auxiliary hanger to a garment hanger,comprising:

a body having an upper end and a lower end;

a retainer secured to said body and extending therefrom in a firstdirection, said auxiliary hanger mounted on said retainer and securedthereto; and

resilient gripping means extending in a second direction secured to saidupper end and lower end permitting alternately the clipping andunclipping of said body to said garment hanger.

2. The clasp as recited in claim 1, wherein the upper gripping meanscomprises:

a clip having forked prongs substantially perpendicular to said body andsecured thereto, said prongs having tips bent toward the lower end ofsaid body forming a U-shaped configuration.

3. A clasp as recited in claim 1, wherein the lower gripping meanscomprises:

a clip arm substantially perpendicular to said body and attachedthereto, said arm having the end bent upwardly and the tip thereof bentdownwardly.

4. A clasp as recited in claim 1 wherein said retainer is U-shaped.

5. A clasp as recited in claim 4, wherein said auxiliary hanger isaflixed to said body by means of deforming said retainer around saidauxiliary hanger to prevent said auxiliary hanger from being detachedfrom said body.

6. A clasp as recited in claim 1, with said primary hanger having ahook, wherein said upper gripping means comprises:

a clip substantially perpendicular to said body having an openingtherein to receive said hook.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,580,839 4/1926 McKenna.2,364,883 12/1944 Wahl 223-88 2,629,575 2/ 1953 Loyot et a1. 2,753,1437/ 1956 Berlt 248--317 FOREIGN PATENTS 959,780 10/ 1949 France. 803,75410/ 1958 Great Britain.

DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl; X.R.

